On June 9, 2025, US Department of Justice (DOJ) Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued “Guidelines for Investigations and Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)” (Guidelines), instructing prosecutors...more
On May 12, 2025, the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Criminal Division issued a memorandum titled Focus, Fairness, and Efficiency in the Fight Against White-Collar Crime (the Memo) to all Criminal Division personnel. The...more
5/19/2025
/ Corporate Crimes ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
New Guidance ,
Self-Reporting ,
Trump Administration ,
Voluntary Disclosure ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
On April 1, 2025, the Texas Association for Money Service Businesses filed a lawsuit in San Antonio federal court challenging the recent Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) applicable to money services businesses (MSBs) located...more
The final judicial barrier to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act’s beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements has been lifted.
The Corporate...more
President Trump’s February 10, 2025 Executive Order pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement and ordering an overhaul of FCPA policy marks a significant shift by the Department of Justice (DOJ), at least in...more
2/13/2025
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Attorney General ,
Bribery ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Governance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Trump Administration
On February 5, 2025, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued two memoranda, General Policy Regarding Charging, Plea Negotiations, and Sentencing and Total Elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations,...more
2/10/2025
/ Anti-Bribery ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Export Controls ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Human Trafficking ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Immigration Reform ,
National Security ,
Trump Administration
On January 10, 2025, the Biden Administration issued a broad sanctions package targeting the Russian energy sector, 10 days in advance of the transition to the incoming Trump Administration. The new sanctions also added two...more
1/14/2025
/ Biden Administration ,
Blocked Person ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Sector ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Policy ,
General Licenses ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
U.S. Treasury ,
UK
Technological advances, especially in Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing, will continue to amaze in the coming years. They will open up vast new opportunities while presenting profound regulatory, litigation, and...more
3/1/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Business Losses ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
NAIC ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
State Privacy Laws ,
Technology ,
Website Design ,
Websites
Welcome to the latest edition of Updata – the international update from Eversheds Sutherland’s dedicated Privacy and Cybersecurity team.
Updata provides you with a compilation of privacy and cybersecurity regulatory and...more
11/7/2023
/ Banking Sector ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Data Subject Access Requests ,
Employee Monitoring ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Hong Kong ,
New Legislation ,
Privacy Framework ,
Privacy Laws ,
UK
On August 28, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a settled enforcement action against Impact Theory LLC (Impact Theory) for the unregistered sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that the SEC determined...more
On September 27, 2022, 15 broker-dealers and one investment adviser agreed to pay more than $1.8 billion in total civil penalties to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and, for those same companies or affiliates...more
10/5/2022
/ Broker-Dealer ,
CFTC ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Electronic Communications ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) ,
Investment Adviser ,
New Guidance ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Swap Dealers ,
Swaps ,
Text Messages
On July 21, 2022, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment charging Ishan Wahi (Wahi), a former product manager at a large cryptocurrency trading platform (the Platform) - along with his brother Nikhil Wahi...more
7/28/2022
/ Conspiracies ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Marketplace ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Howey ,
Indictments ,
Insider Trading ,
Popular ,
Rule 10b-5 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Wire Fraud
Last week, yet another US Department of Justice (DOJ) official reportedly stated new corporate settlements “most likely” will include a requirement that the company’s chief compliance officer (CCO), as well as the chief...more
There is no love lost between the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the crypto industry with tensions escalating over the past year. So it seems fitting that on Valentine’s Day, the SEC brought a...more
On December 17, 2021, a financial institution agreed to pay $200 million in fines to the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodities Futures Trading Commission for allowing employees to discuss business on their...more
1/7/2022
/ CFTC ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Fines ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discovery ,
Electronic Communications ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Government Investigations ,
Instant Messaging Apps ,
Internal Controls ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
WhatsApp ,
White Collar Crimes
On September 21, 2021, the US Department of the Treasury took actions in response to the increasing prevalence and severity of ransomware attacks in the United States and address the central role that virtual currency and...more
9/27/2021
/ Currency Exchange ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) ,
Digital Currency ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Ransomware ,
SDN List ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Virtual Currency
It was a tumultuous year for privacy and cybersecurity, and further uncertainty is all but guaranteed. The key to navigating this volatility, as 2020 proved, is to develop and maintain a proactive, agile and holistic data...more
2/10/2021
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
NAIC ,
Popular
On August 14, 2020, the US Department of Justice (the DOJ) issued its first Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Opinion Procedure Release in six years, which relayed that it did not intend to pursue an enforcement action...more
8/25/2020
/ Advisory Opinions ,
Banks ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fees ,
Foreign Banks ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Investment Adviser ,
Multinationals ,
State-Owned Enterprises ,
Subsidiaries
According to one blockchain and cryptocurrency security firm, this year is on pace to be the second highest in cryptocurrency theft, hacking and fraud, with January through May 2020 already seeing $1.36 billion stolen in...more
6/10/2020
/ Bank Secrecy Act ,
Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fraud ,
Hackers ,
Misappropriation ,
Money Laundering ,
Money Services Business ,
OCC ,
Theft
The US Department of Justice has taken its first enforcement action against COVID-19 fraud, illustrating its previously stated commitment to prosecute “bad actors” attempting to exploit the global health crisis. On March 22,...more
On December 13, 2019, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a revised Export Control and Sanctions Enforcement Policy for Business Organizations (Revised EC/S Policy), clarifying its prior guidance on voluntary...more
1/14/2020
/ Amended Regulation ,
Compliance ,
Cooperation ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disgorgement ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Export Controls ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Forfeiture ,
Remediation ,
Voluntary Disclosure
With companies increasingly worried about what the California Attorney General, and private litigants, will do once the California Consumer Privacy Act comes into effect, they should not lose sight of what the Federal Trade...more
In a somewhat surprising move, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) entered into a $24 million settlement with Block.one on September 30, 2019, over its unregistered initial coin offering (ICO) that raised upwards of...more
10/18/2019
/ Blockchain ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investors ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Technology Sector ,
Token Sales ,
Unregistered Securities
On September 16, 2019, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted three precious metals traders for allegedly violating six criminal statutes, including the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act...more
9/27/2019
/ Bribery ,
CFTC ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Consumer Protection Act ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Indictments ,
Insider Trading ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
Racketeering ,
RICO ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Spoofing ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices ,
Whistleblowers
Along with other regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) has been signaling its intention to pursue those in the cryptocurrency sphere that it believes are capitalizing on the excitement and novelty of...more